Grigory Helbach

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Grigory Helbach (also spelled Hellbach, Gelbach, or Gelbak) was a Russian chess master. He was born on January 13, 1863, in Zvenyhorodka and died on August 3, 1930. He was Jewish and from the Kiev Governorate in the Russian Empire.

In chess, Helbach competed in several important early Russian tournaments:

- 1899 Moscow All-Russian Masters' Tournament: tied for 6th–7th; Mikhail Chigorin won.
- 1900 St. Petersburg: took 6th place (Chigorin and Alexander Levin won).
- 1901 St. Petersburg: shared 1st place with Sergey Lebedev.
- 1902 St. Petersburg: finished 7th.
- 1903 St. Petersburg: shared 1st place.
- 1905/06 St. Petersburg: finished 15th in the 4th Russian Championship (Gersz Salwe won).
- 1909 St. Petersburg: tied for 15th–16th in the All-Russian Amateur Tournament (Alexander Alekhine won).

In 1911, Helbach defeated Alexei Alekhine in a friendly St. Petersburg vs. Moscow team match.